We confess, we're amazed by all of the construction happening near Front & Race right now. About a year and a half ago, we told you about plans for ten homes at 120 Race St., then part of a surface parking lot located next to the highway. In general, these plans sounded okay to us, but we were somewhat bummed that the developers were opting for homes and not a condo building like the newish six-unit building at Front & Quarry. Checking in on this project today, you can see that the most of the homes look like they're approaching the finish line.
You'd think these homes would be listed for sale but we can't find any listings. Given what new construction homes are selling for in Old City these days, a price over $1M per home is to be expected, though we wonder whether the fact that I-95 is immediately next door to nine of the homes might have an impact on sale price.
Now let's move to the west. While we've covered the project at 120 Race St. in the past, we've not previously discussed the adjacent projects at 117 Quarry St. and 151 N. 2nd St., two parcels that were previously combined with the aforementioned property and used for parking. From what we can tell, the two properties are owned by the same developer but are getting developed separately, with ten homes and seven homes respectively. One of the units on 2nd Street is currently listed for sale at an asking price of $1.5M. The project has been dubbed Fireman's Place. You can see though, that these homes are several months behind the neighboring project in terms of construction timeline.
When you consider that Old City has seen several developments in the last couple of years targeting buyers at this price point, you have to be encouraged that Philadelphia is heading in a positive direction, with more million-dollar buyers than at any time in recent memory. At the same time, it's astounding to consider just how expensive it's gotten to buy new construction in Center City neighborhoods. It certainly helps explain why areas like Northern Liberties, Bella Vista, and Graduate Hospital are in such high demand right now- prices in those neighborhoods are, by comparison, a tremendous value.